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Law and commercial life of Rome1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2013
Extract
Nearly thirty years ago, John Crook's well-known book Law and life of Rome provided what remains the most sustained and wide-ranging survey of the place of Roman law in Roman society. Chapter 7, ‘Commerce’, begins with the observation that in Roman times trade and business were relatively insignificant compared with land. No doubt few would disagree. But in recent years historians have done much to illuminate such questions of economic history as patterns of trade and consumption. Certain other matters, however, remain comparatively obscure. The non-legal sources are sufficiently unhelpful that it becomes important to have regard to the messages contained in the legal sources; and in them there is sufficient material to allow us to consider how the law shaped or was shaped by commercial life. The particular questions on which this paper touches are the type of labour – free or slave, dependent or independent – which was employed in commerce; and the manner in which commercial businesses were organized during the principate.
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- Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1998
References
2 Crook, J.A., Law and life of Rome (1967)Google Scholar.
3 For a general account of the Roman economy, see Garnsey, P. and Saller, R., The Roman empire (1987) 43 ff.Google Scholar
4 We do hear a certain amount about societies of publicani and of bankers, but we are not well informed about the ways in which other businesses were organized. Kirschenbaum, A., Sons, slaves and freemen in Roman commerce (1987)Google Scholar does not deal with the questions with which this paper is concerned.
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7 Kaser, , RZ 306ff.Google Scholar
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15 See e.g. Pap. D. 14.3.19.1; Scaev. D. 26.7.58; Gai. D. 40.9.10.
16 Nerat. D. 41.3.41.
17 Gaius, Inst. 2.95.
18 Pap. D. 3.5.30 pr.; 14.3.19 pr.; 17.1.10.5; 19.1.13.25. See also Ulp. D. 14.1.1.18; 14.3.1; Gai. D. 14.3.2.
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23 D. 14.1.1.17.
24 See e.g. D. 14.1.6 pr.; 15.1.47.
25 D. 14.1.1 pr.; 14.1.6; 14.3.1 pr.
26 D. 14.3.5.11.
27 E.g. D. 14.1.1.7 and 12.
28 D. 14.3.11.2.
29 D. 14.3.11.3–4.
30 D. 14.1.7.
31 Cf. also D. 14.3.13 pr.
32 D. 14.1.1 pr.
33 D. 14.4.1.3.
34 Tac. Ann. 14.43.
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40 As, for example, nowadays banks regularly require of the directors of limited companies when lending to the company.
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